WFP: No deal yet with Cuomo

Gov. Andrew Cuomo today will hope to win the backing of the small, but influential Working Families Party as he seeks re-election this fall.

The Democratic governor and the party leadership were working late Friday and Saturday on a potential compromise that would lead to Cuomo’s endorsement in exchange for him agreeing to pursue the union-backed party’s progressive agenda.

On Twitter, party spokesman Khan Shoieb cautioned: "Key thing to note is WFP priorities for endorsement haven't budged one bit."

Cuomo and his allies have worked behind the scenes in an attempt to again win the support of the Working Families Party, a liberal organization whose ballot line delivered him about 150,000 votes in 2010.

To win the party’s nod, Cuomo would need to commit to increasing the minimum wage, allow illegal immigrants to receive tuition assistance and expand a pilot program for public financing of campaigns.

Cuomo has backed many of those issues already, but it may also require him to abandon his working relationship with the coalition of Republicans and Democrats that control the Senate--something the Working Families Party has been clamoring for him to do. The coalition hasn’t voted to approve those measures.

Cuomo has also been opposed to another expansion of the minimum wage--particularly the effort by some Democrats to let local governments set their own minimum wage. In February, Cuomo said it would create chaos to allow municipalities to each set a minimum wage; the minimum wage is set to go to $9 an hour at the end of 2015.

There was no comment from Cuomo’s campaign.

If the party doesn’t back Cuomo, there’s already a Working Families Party candidate.

Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor who worked on Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, announced she would seek the party’s nomination.

The party has clearly been divided over what to do -- and the decision are garnered national attention because it pits a left-leaning group against a governor who has prided himself on a centrist approach in office.

Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York and co-chairwoman of the Working Families Party, said earlier Friday that the party appeared ready to back a challenger to Cuomo. Scharff praised Teachout, saying she “stands for a New York and a democracy that works for ordinary New Yorkers.”

“Unless there’s a significant new development, the party is headed to going independent,” Scharff told Gannett’s Albany Bureau.

Either way, the ramifications could be significant for the Working Families Party, which has traditionally backed Democratic candidates and is expected to endorse Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for re-election.

The party’s gubernatorial candidate must receive 50,000 votes in November in order to maintain its position on New York ballots for the next four years.

Some private-sector unions that are among the party’s leadership, including the Communications Workers of America, have wanted to back Cuomo, and the party may risk the unions’ defection if they go with an independent candidate.

Endorsing a challenger could also risk alienating Cuomo, who is in a strong position for re-election, according to public opinion polls. But some party leaders have also wanted to take a stand against Cuomo, saying he hasn’t pressed for higher taxes on the rich and education reform.

A Quinnipiac poll last week showed Cuomo with a 29-percentage-point lead over Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, his Republican opponent. But with a Working Families Party candidate in the race, Cuomo would get 37 percent, Astorino would get 24 percent and the unnamed liberal candidate would get 22 percent, Quinnipiac said.

Astorino today is slated to receive the backing of the Conservative Party, a third party that has been traditionally aligned with Republicans.